BTW, its a beauty of an engine for sure, I always loved the Nickel Plate Berks, had several in HO scale over the years, all Rivarossi of course, and I have them in my Trainz Simulator as well!
I have the same locomotive in my collection and it has the smoking whistle. Yours should as well. I too find the wireless drawbar somewhat of a challenge but it sure beats the old cable. There is also a hinged drop plate off the cab deck that is supposed to bridge the gap between the cab floor and tender deck. Along with the wireless drawbar it takes some getting used to. The Nickel Plate Road acquired another 32 Berkshires when it leased the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR in 1949. These were basically from the same design as the NKP Berks but a bit more modern with roller bearings on all axles and Boxpok drivers. When the Nickel Plate acquired them they were renumbered in the 800 series and classed as S4's. The Wheeling Berks began sporting MARS oscillating safety lights a year prior to the NKP leasing the road. If interested you might want to check out Kevin Holland's book "Berkshires of the Nickel Plate Road". It's a great book though a bit scarce.
So what is the size of your trainboard? We removed inclines and declines from our new trainboard, tired of constantly adjusting speed on our many protosound 1 engines. I , however, do like elevated runs, like yours.
NKP 763 was one of 23 NKP Berkshires equipped with signal and steam heat lines for passenger service during the latter part of WWII. So passenger sounds can be considered authentic. Kevin Holland authored a fine book entitled "Berkshires of the Nickel Plate Road". Published in 1998 it is a great reference on those engines.
